SLWLadybug's Journal

Sunday morning...

The sky is  blue and clear.  A few wisps of white clouds scattered here and there but nothing, and I mean nothing like the other evening when the sky turned dark and clouds hovered low, the wind whipped through the neighborhood, blowing anything loose out of its way, the lightening was so bright it overpowered the street lights and it was as if the thunder were God proclaiming His existence.  I know my faith was deepened in that storm.  Just the way it is deepened in every storm in my life.  The clouds threaten rain and hail, sleet and snow, the wind whips, blowing every loose string of faith I may have clear out of range, leaving me to cry out for mercy.  Then the lightening strikes and though it threatens to hit me, it never does and though the clouds roar, they are music in my ears.

I love the thunder and the lightening.  They remind me how small I am and how big my God is.  I love the wind, the fury of its strength.  None of those are pleasant, and yet, all are needful.  The wind cleans and clears debris from trees, out of places where it doesn't belong.  The lightening can clear and clean underbrush in a forest, leaving a beautiful landscape when the spring brings new growth from the seeds that were left underneath the soil and the thunder - that is my favorite of all.  The thunder is mighty and reminds me that God is alive and still in charge.  I know that isn't the scientific reason of what causes lightening, but I stand there and close my eyes and remind myself, the maker of the universe still cares for me.  Even though I am so small. 

In the storms of my life, in the hard rains and the fierce winds, the lightening strikes and the roar of thunder, I have been tested.   But it is in the storms that my faith has grown.  Sometimes I don't notice until the season of spring has come, when the gentle rains and the warm sunshine bring reminders of life, of new growth, that I made it through the harsh season of winter.  And I find that  God was there all along, cleansing me, strengthening me, making me new.